Martin Luther King knew that reconciliation between blacks and whites was as important as winning the political struggle. He set out to conquer the segregation laws, but also to conquer the confused racial prejudices of a dominant white race
2.2 cutting
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2.2b TROOPS TO BE SENT TO ALABAMA
2.2c The Times, May 13, 1963
2.2d caption
King never used violence as a political weapon, though he and his fellow activists were often subjected to violence. From the earliest days of the bus boycotts in 1955 until his death in 1968, King insisted that peaceful protest was the only option
2.3 picture
white coloured
2.3b caption
In the southern states of America in the Fifties, blacks were forbidden by law to drink from the same taps as whites. Neither could they eat in the same canteens as whites, learn in the same schools, or worship in the same churches
2.4 video
movietone - King locked in church
2.4b caption
Violence flared in Montgomery, Alabama in 1961 when young 'Freedom Riders' challenged the segregation of whites and blacks on interstate buses. Dr King went to Montgomery, where he and his followers found themselves barricaded inside a church .while white segregationists vented their anger outside
2.5 cutting
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2.5b 200,000 NEGRO MARCHERS DISPERSE IN PEACE
2.5c The Times, Aug 29, 1963
2.5d caption
With King at its head, the civil rights movement became unstoppable. In August 1963, at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, King told the largest demonstration ever assembled about his dream of equality and integration
2.6 picture
King
2.6b caption
King concluded the speech by saying "We will hew hope out of the mountain of despair. Let freedom ring." He then described a land where his people would be "free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last."
2.7 cutting
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2.7b SEGREGATION ON ITS DEATHBED, SAYS DR KING
2.7c The Times, May 12, 1965
2.7d caption
After the signing of the civil rights bill there was a backlash of white racist terrorism against southern blacks. Chapters of the Ku Klux Klan organised themselves to take back the victories which the civil rights movement had already won
LEGACY
3.1 picture
King with Johnson
3.1b caption
In 1964, with Martin Luther King at his side, president Johnson signed the civil rights bill which made the segregation of public services illegal. It was a significant victory, enshrining the principle that all are entitled to equal treatment in a free country
3.2 cutting
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3.2b DR KING MURDERED IN MEMPHIS
3.2c The Times, May 4, 1968
3.2d caption
The murder of Martin Luther King sparked a wave of rioting and violence across the country - the very last thing he would have wanted. Forty blacks and five whites died on the first night, and thousands were injured in fighting and looting
3.3 cutting
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3.3b THE BULLET THAT DIDN'T STOP A REVOLUTION
3.3c The Times, April 4, 1978
3.3d caption
Martin Luther King hoped that a black person might become president of the United States before the end of the century. That prospect still seems some way off, but perhaps the dream he dreamed in 1963 is a little closer to coming true
3.4 picture
marching crowd
3.4b caption
The day before he died King told a congregation: "I've been to the mountain top... I've looked over and seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory..."
NUGGETS
4.1 Martin Luther King's birthday, January 15, is now a national holiday in the United States
4.2 King always cheerfully refused to make a will. "Why should I draw up a will?" he said. "I don't have anything to leave."
4.3 King twice tried to commit suicide as a boy in grief at the death of is grandmother. He jumped from a window, but was unhurt in both instances
4.4 King was a Baptist minister, like his father and grandfather before him, and he served as assistant pastor in his father's church
4.5 As in the case of John Kennedy, conspiracy theories abound as to who was behind the murder of Martin Luther King
4.5 Dr King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech from the steps of the Linclon Memorial in Washington. The monument to Abraham Lincoln, the President who freed the slaves, was at this time still off limits to blacks
4.6 King lost count of the number of times he was arrested. As late as 1967, three years after the civil rights bill was signed, king was made to serve a 5-day sentence in Birmingham, Alabama, for public order offences committed in 1963
4.7 When Dr King won the Nobel Prize for peace the former police chief of Birmingham, Alabama, said: "They are scraping the bottom of the barrel when they pick him. He has caused more strife and trouble in this country than anyone I can think of."
